Have you noticed it too? Have you noticed the cheesy but clever trend out there for “public beta” sites? It is cheesy because big names like Yahoo and Google take advantage of users by offering them the latest experimental technology in exchange for their forgiveness if something goes wrong. It is clever because users like to participate. They like to be involved and best of all, they love to offer feedback.
If this cheesy but clever idea can work for Yahoo and Google, why wouldn’t it work for our little old intranet? We decided to give it a try. We’re starting with a private beta where select users are given a link to a Pilot Signup Page. After they signup, they get to see a slightly new and improved homepage and a link to our RSS beta page.
So far our beta (pilot) participants like what they see. It is great for them because it gives them an easy and seamless way to participate. They don’t have to remember the link to our test environment. Rather, the beta content is seamlessly integrated with our production content. Regular users see the default content, but our beta users see the revised content and experience the revised technology. Beta users can easily toggle back and forth from regular to beta content. They can also opt out of the pilot if they wish.
As we advance from a private beta to a public beta, we’ll adopt the same philosophy as Google and Yahoo. If you want to try it, try it. On the other hand, it you don’t want to deal with potential issues, you simply don’t have to participate.
Yahoo’s beta logo
Google’s gmail logo
Our pilot signup page
Pilot participants can go to the Pilot Participant page by clicking the link if they want to toggle back to the default environment or opt out completely.